The hierarchical organization of files has dominated computer systems for many years and this will probably not change in the near future. However, with the rapid annual growth of new data this classical hierarchical file system management method reaches its limitations, even when the user consistently sets up and continually expands an elaborated directory structure with well-disciplined naming. This paper introduces new management methods to maintain an overview of all files which can be embedded in the hierarchical file system. A metadata-based file system, which is based on the hierarchical file system, offers, in addition to hierarchical access, a more flexible and associative access to files via virtual objects by providing query capabilities of index- and metadata which are stored in a database. The query results are presented in a clearly-arranged form of virtual directories and virtual files so that the intuitive hierarchical view continues to be maintained. The data management system ZIBDMS, which contains a distributed metadata catalog and a file replication catalog, permits a transparent implementation of these management methods for the NFS interface, CORBA-middleware or web services. Furthermore, ZIBDMS provides other new file management methods that can be integrated into the hierarchical file system view. Metadata in form of attribute-value-pairs can be presented and edited with a virtual file. A Collection makes it possible to organize files in logical virtual folders. Using a Dependency graph, files can be related to each other and expressed through a link structure between these files. In the ZIBDMS the reference concept of a classical hierarchal file system is extended with a new kind of reference called Weak Link in order to provide up-to-date, consistent and cycle-free symbolic links. With the references a tree can be established in a hierarchical view in which navigation and listing of references are possible; this capability is only possible in the ZIBDMS system.